[OPEN] And so I'm having a wonderful time

[spaghettification]

Who: Siebren and You
What: Post-Cult Recovery, Information Dissemination and general Siebrenity
When:Mid-July
Where: Places and also locations
Warning(s): Discussion of mental health and trauma likely, along with cult event CWs. Also, heavy alcohol use.

1. A woman came up to me and said [Library]
Regardless of what's in Siebren's head, he still shows up to work. Sometimes, he focuses on simple matters; reshelving, cleaning, dealing with things that need him to be tol (or rather, to be not-grounded). Other times, he'll be at the reference desk, nose-deep into some sort of book. He's doing a very good job at presenting himself as stable and pushing himself to be useful. He's making a point of not isolating himself from his community.

Those who know him more than passingly, though, can tell he's distracted and a bit absent. Moments when he hangs like a bad internet connection. Perhaps it's time to check in on your local sad science grandpa.


2. I'd like to poison your mind [Oak and Iron]
If you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.

Siebren is drinking. Heavily. He's alone at a table at the Oak and Iron, a bottle of wine and a single glass in front of him, and he is getting himself thoroughly shitfaced. For better or worse, he seems a quiet, depressive sort of drunk rather than a disruptive one (though his bottle occasionally floats over the table instead of sitting neatly on it). But this is clearly not a celebratory sort of drinking.

Still, if you acquire a glass from the staff, he might be encouraged to share, just so he's not drinking that whole bottle alone.


3. With wrong ideas that appeal to you [Empty Pockets Open Mic]
There's a song stuck in his head. Oh, it has been there for a while now, but now, it's stuck deeper than usual, running around the edges of his mind at all hours. Luckily, there are appropriate times and places to pass an earworm along. Like open mic night.

While he warms up with some Phillip Glass, some Satie, he jumps into the main event quickly, a look of concentration on his face as he draws down the music of the universe and plays it back.

Catch him after his performance, before he slips out the back door?


4. Though I am not unkind [Wildcard]
[As usual, darkersolstice on discord to plot. Or throw yourself at me, I'm easy.]

Comments

[spaghettification]

"Yes, but. I don't want my self to be a danger to you, even if you are not safe. And I'm feeling vulnerable."

Well, at least he's honest?

[blindwatchersees]

“We can only make of it what we can. Better to do that than sit still and do nothing because we’ve convinced ourselves we can do nothing. Now.. I know I’m already in your head, but I think it’ll be better if you tell me what happened yourself. Haskill’s always told me that talking helps, even when I feel like it’s pointless.”

[spaghettification]

"Nyarlathotep distracted me from his cult sacrificing me to him, because the inside of my head was fascinating to him."

There is no part of that sentence that feels good to Siebren.

"Also, there is now a group of people who know me for my designation as a research subject."

[blindwatchersees]

“What would you say you’re more afraid of? The chaos crawling about inside your skull, or the way this revelation might affect how others think of you?” His expression looks completely sincere.

“Where do we stop the bleeding first?”

[spaghettification]

"How others will think of me is not a thing I can control. Trying to is a futile effort. Also, the crawling chaos is almost certainly the greater danger." Beat. "Right?"

[blindwatchersees]

"I think most people would make that assessment, yes. Though I'd say it's only partially true, that you can't control how others think of you. Perception is a curious thing, doctor. But we can worry about your public relations after we've made sure we've scrubbed that pesky little visitor out of your skull."

Beat.

"Unless your curiosity demands that we keep him there?"

[spaghettification]

"No!" He realizes after a second just how loud he's said that, as heads turn to look at him in confusion. "...I mean. No. I want to be certain he's out."

[blindwatchersees]

His smile widens a little.

"It's good to know what you want. Very well. Are you up for a trip down to Paradesium?"

[spaghettification]

"I am, perhaps, a little drunk. But beside that, yes. Are you up to help me get there safely, old man?"

Look, he figures on some level that Sheogorath wouldn't have asked if the offer wasn't there, but it's good to be sure.

[blindwatchersees]

"Well, I can never guarantee safety- I can't see the future, after all- but I can do my best." He stands up, giving his cane a little toss in the air before he catches it and leans on it.

[spaghettification]

Siebren stands and begins to float at his usual few inches off the ground, with perhaps a little more bobble in his float than usual. It happens when drunk. Sometimes, he even thinks it looks more jaunty.

"Nyarlathotep can't see the future, either. But from the past, he could see the present. Which makes me think now is genuinely being now, instead of another future's past."

Surely Sheo can follow that, right?

[blindwatchersees]

"Some of the gods would love to convince you that everything is a matter of calculation. Prediction. A reduction to simple mathematics. And every time, they're proven delightfully wrong. Time is a messy thing, and it's even more messy for the beings unattached to it. It runs around in circles, it steps on its own tail, it doubles back and ties itself in knots. Now is now, doctor. If you must boil it down to your physics, think of it as the analysis of an infinitesimally small point. You can see where it's likely to go, and where it sits in a relative grid, but there are so many factors, so many unseen things, that it is no curve's point but its own."

He taps his cane on the ground.

"Let's see if we can't make a few good points today, hm?"

[spaghettification]

"Some beings--and I include many humans here--feel most comfortable seeing time and space as a canvas, stretched out on a frame. Warp and weft. They don't realize that time can be paint."

He gestures for Sheogorath to lead the way.

[blindwatchersees]

"I don't think that's a wrong way of doing it. A canvas gives us a sense of how to shape the paint, after all." And Sheogorath does lead, out of the Oak and Iron and through town and into the woods. The mouth of Paradesium beckons hungrily.

[spaghettification]

The village is no different than it's been, but the cult party changed how Siebren perceives it. Like a stain on the Winterbottom clinic. Like a shadow from the remains of the Larkin estate. They have not changed. He has changed.

[blindwatchersees]

"Now. When we go down there, you're going to see some strange things. They may wind their way into your brain. They may have to, if we want to get rid of the Crawling Chaos. Are you prepared for that?"

[spaghettification]

"Are the strange things you?"

Because that matters. That matters a lot to him.

[blindwatchersees]

“Me, and you. Not a lot of difference, in this case.”

[spaghettification]

"Why is letting myself in my head a scarier prospect than you being in there?" He intends for it to sound like a joke. It is absolutely not.

[blindwatchersees]

"Because, mien lieve doctor, I am much less inclined towards being your worst enemy."

He hops down into the mouth of the cave, sliding on the leaf litter, as if he's a creature absolutely in his element.

[spaghettification]

"Feh." Siebren follows, continuing to do his floating thing rather than touching the earth, but there's good reason for that, really. He doesn't need the weight of his body on old joints along with all his other current issues.

[blindwatchersees]

As they venture deeper, strange things begin to happen. The air grows heavier and a bit hazy, the sweet smell growing all the more pronounced. Odd, colorful mushrooms sprout wherever the old man’s fingertips brush. There’s an unfamiliar chirping of frogs echoing from deeper in the caverns. And, perhaps the oddest of all, even at this depth, butterflies flit by from time to time.

Of course, the usual wildlife is down here as well. Actually… is that a Greenstrider?

[spaghettification]

The greenstriders are a threat, right? Siebren automatically places himself between it and Sheogorath like a good tank, already bracing for a fight, reaching for his one remaining hypersphere.

[blindwatchersees]

The creatures do take notice, charging, chittering, ducking and weaving. Siebren can hear Sheogorath shift on his feet behind him, but there's not enough time to turn around and see what he's doing.

[spaghettification]

The hypersphere is not thrown so much as it is launched. Sent out to impact a foreign object, explode and then return to Siebren. The rhythm is off because there's only one hypersphere, the other lost in the House of Cards on his journey with George. But even with one, Siebren can be an effective weapon, building to a potential gravitic flux to end the threat.

And the music starts to play in the back of his head.